Blood-retinal barrier in eyes with long-standing aphakia with apparently normal fundi.

Vitreous fluorophotometry was used to evaluate the integrity of the blood-retinal barrier in 130 eyes with long-standing aphakia and apparently normal fundi. All patients had undergone intracapsular lens extraction because of senile cataract and had been followed up for approximately one year (group 1) or three years (group 2). Thirty normal eyes served as controls. Thirty minutes or one hour after intravenous administration of fluorescein sodium, 50 of 130 aphakic eyes (32 of 70 group 1 eyes; 18 of 60 group 2 eyes) and three of 30 control eyes were judged abnormal in breakdown of the blood-retinal barrier. In aphakic eyes, the older the age at operation, the higher the incidence of barrier breakdown. These results indicate that the blood-retinal barrier remains disrupted for a longer postoperative period than was previously thought, and that the incidence of barrier breakdown relates to the age at operation. Although these findings reflect subclinical phenomena, they are biologically important.